A blog for the Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Looking Back on the November 22nd Chapter Meeting

This was another busy Tuesday nite meeting with concentration on preparations for the holiday shows Dec. 2 and 3 at First Baptist in Alexandria.

And again, lots of guys arrived early to get in line to buy and pick up tickets from our ticket chairman, Ian Poulin.

Have you seen the new system he (the chapter) has for paying for things now? You can use a credit card and he can swipe it right there and you get a receipt via email. Makes life a lot easier that remembering a check book or bringing enough cash to buy a lot of tickets or scrip. (I did learn you can only charge scrip if the chapter’s percentage of return is adequate. Ask about it.

This is the time of year to buy cards for Honey Baked Ham stores, holiday shopping at Giant, and such.)

Before the meeting started, music vp Terry Reynolds met with a group of volunteers (many of them family members, recent guests and applicants) to work on the special card flipping routine for the show.

Great to see Dave Reyno in the house. He came from his home out in Maryland to get 100 more White House Ornaments. He has already sold 350. (Sales ideas from YeEd – get a couple yourself and have them out where relatives or co-workers or friends can see them. Let one of them just happen to be on top of your bag at choir rehearsal. Give one as a door prize at the office holiday party.)

When the 7 pm bell clanged, Tony Colosimo took the reins and conducted the vocal warm ups.

When director Joe Cerutti took over, he worked on the songs for the last set of the show.Also we had some of the beginning sneak previews of the script and funny gags – including those the chorus is a part of. Sure hope the helicopter pilot can control his flight!!!

The chapter meeting period was conducted by operations vp Mark Klostermeyer. Membership vp Phil Ashford introduced two new members – Shawn Tallant and Mike Vlcej. Then he welcomed the line of guests – a big crew again with some first timers, a bunch of applicants (YeEd heard that a couple of them passed their auditions after chapter too), and three guests from the Germantown, MD, Chapter.

This week the cupboard was overflowing with goodies from the recent DELA barbershop weekend party hosted by the Harmonizer members of that group. The fudge was a hit!

After break, Mark reminded everyone about several show matters: sell tickets to fill out Fri nite as Sat shows are basically sold; bring in two big boxes wrapped in shiny paper; bring 4 dozen holiday cookies; respond to Drew Fuller’s request for items for the silent auction at the shows; and offer to bring in show props that are still needed – see Steve Lingo. Phil Ashford is coordinator of the crew of waiters and needs everyone to sign up if you really wanna serve a particular table (or he will assign us to tables).

Ken Henderson is chairing the Singing Valentine project for 2012. BIG CHANGE – we are only offering the service on Feb. 14th. He suggests guys put in for vacation or leave now. Also word is that we will market Singing Valentines by telephone or U-tube. Stay tuned.

The annual Put Together Quartet contest is Dec. 13th – a chapter contest for fun. There will be judges and an emcee and photographer and all – just like a Society contest. You would not expect the Harmonizers to do it any other way. Key is to form a quartet now. Work up some nutty parodies or get some fun costumes or at least an outlandish quartet name. Eric Wallen is Dr. Put and thus he is ready to help guys put-together a quartet if they wish. There are even trophies for the winners! There are two Tuesdays left to snag a good lead or one of the tenors!

After the announcements, it was back to hard work on the songs for the holiday show.

Mark your calendar too for the Tues nite BASH in Glen Burnie, Dec. 27th. It’s an annual bash to celebrate the hobby with guys from all the chapters around the DC region. Usually some top quartets make the stage plus a bunch of put-together type quartets. Maybe our chapter winners will go represent us. There’s no Harmo meeting that nite, so form a car pool and lets all go. Last few years a huge crowd of us took in the fun, chow and cold drinks. Ask Steve White or Jack Pitzer about going.

Jack told guys about the Messiah Sing-along at the Clarendon Methodist Church, Sun, eve at 7:30 pm. Bring your own score and join in the church-full-choir. There is an orchestra and soloists to do the traditional Christmas Messiah. What a treat.

Alan Wile reminded all of the Tuba Christmas event at the Kennedy Center on Dec 7 at 6 pm -- hundreds of tubas and euphoniums playing holiday music.

A good crowd of us went to the afterglow at the Hilton across from King Street Metro station.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)